Syrian authorities arrest relative of Assad after rare protest

BEIRUT, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Syrian authorities have arrested
a relative of President Bashar al-Assad, the state news agency
said on Monday, two days after protesters called for the man's
punishment over his suspected killing of an army officer in a
traffic dispute.

Hundreds of Syrians staged a rare protest on Saturday
evening in the coastal city of Latakia, a stronghold of Assad
and his Alawite sect, to demand the execution of Suleiman
al-Assad, the son of the president's cousin Hilal.

State news agency SANA said the authorities had "arrested
Suleiman Hilal al-Assad and transferred him to the relevant
parties". It gave no further details.

Syria's state media had not reported the protest, the
traffic incident or the reported killing.

Details of what happened vary. But according to the
Britain-based Observatory for Human Rights and supporters of
President Assad on social media, Suleiman al-Assad was angered
when Colonel Hassan al-Shaikh, who was in a car with his family,
overtook his vehicle in a Latakia street, and so shot him dead
nearby shortly afterwards.

In a video posted on social media, protesters at Saturday's
rally chanted: "The people want the execution of Suleiman." They
also chanted slogans in support of the president.

The arrested man's father, Hilal al-Assad, was killed in
battles with Islamist insurgents last year.

In Syria's four-year civil war, Alawites who make up
roughly 10 percent of the 23 million population have largely
backed Assad against mainly Sunni Muslim insurgents.

But opposition activists say dissent has been growing within
Assad's Latakia regional heartland largely due to a high death
toll among Alawite fighters and civilians -- tens of thousands
-- in the conflict, as well as official corruption.
(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Gareth Jones)